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The following books by Robert Paul Wolff are available on Amazon.com as e-books: KANT'S THEORY OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, THE AUTONOMY OF REASON, UNDERSTANDING MARX, UNDERSTANDING RAWLS, THE POVERTY OF LIBERALISM, A LIFE IN THE ACADEMY, MONEYBAGS MUST BE SO LUCKY, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON KANT'S CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for "Robert Paul Wolff Kant." There they will be.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON THE THOUGHT OF KARL MARX. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for Robert Paul Wolff Marx."





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Thursday, March 26, 2020

I AM NOT SURE WHAT ELSE I CAN DO


Stir crazy from the forced isolation of my retirement community, depressed by the news, frustrated by my knowledge that I can do nothing about the turmoil tearing the world apart, I thought to distract myself and my readers with a trifle linking the gig economy to Marx’s Capital.  Did it amuse?  Did it distract?  Did it for a moment remind us of better times?  Not a bit of it.  Instead it elicited a series of comments that, I must honestly admit, made my heart sink just a little.

Oh well, no one ever accused me of being a minor league Mel Brooks.  I shall content myself with helping my fellow residents of Building 5 to combat the loneliness caused by the closing of the dining rooms, which has reduced us to eating alone the meals the management efficiently delivers to our doors.

14 comments:

s. wallerstein said...

Have you seen this video (that Leiter linked to) from an intensive care doctor in NYC (which means he sees corona virus cases all day long) explaining clearly how to avoid it, how to face it, etc.? Worth looking at.
https://vimeo.com/399733860?fbclid=IwAR1_k3go6uGitrs4YWVyI17m4S_VV7r2D9yqpRU2sotq9phyxtqyUCK146s

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the post very much!

Reading it, I thought I might recommend a very good book about gig work: Uberland. It's a very detailed look at the lives of Uber drivers. Very interesting--and sad--stuff.

Stephen Hemingway said...

Don't be disheartened! This is a great blog. I read it every day from Montreal, Canada.

LFC said...

You blog with the commenters you have, not the commenters you wish you had (to riff on a remark by a former U.S. Secretary of Defense).

Lucia said...

Poor Bob, we've disappointed him yet again in our lacklustre response to his latest missive on the dead guy!

Écrasez L'infâme said...

Judging by the large number of hits your site gets, you must have many readers who like and admire and learn things from your blog, and express their appreciation not by favourable comments but by returning to it over and over. I am one.

David Auerbach said...

Ditto what all the nice people said. (Even though I'm not nice.)

david said...

You have fans, who read and learn and are grateful--and perhaps too humble or timid to chime in. My dad used to say "if it is gratitude you want, get a dog." Keep up the good work; it matters.
Thanks.

Ika Nizharadze said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ika Nizharadze said...

You're a large rock tumbling down the hill, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

C Rossi said...

I very much enjoyed your article on Marx and the jig economy (sorry, gig; your post made me feel like dancin' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvPwQdJdkc), and I learned much from it as always from your posts. As a partial corrective to my own being stir crazy, depressed, frustrated, and otherwise disoriented by the spirit of the time, I return to this wonderful 1992 live performance of the tone poem Notturno by Giuseppe Martucci played by The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. I particularly like this performance because I was in the audience at the Philadelphia Academy of Music that evening for the farewell to Maestro Muti. I was not, however, the person who coughed loudly at the pianissimo ending of this lovely piece. If after 28 years I meet the cougher, he and I will have words. Be well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etl4QqVN2sc

Jerry Fresia said...

I'm hung up on the "sinking heart." Therefore, let me qualify my remarks. When I said that most of what Marx is about is process, I was referring to the notion of self-creation through work, the process of becoming, of enjoying the manipulation of nature or more specifically I should have said "regarding the liberation theory of Marx," not the explanatory theory. I hope this helps.

Christopher J. Mulvaney, Ph.D. said...

Dr. Wolff,

Illegitimi non carborundum!

F Lengyel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.